Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1895 — Curious Custom in Holland. [ARTICLE]

Curious Custom in Holland.

When young Queen Willielmina visited the other day the marvelous vaults at Maestrielie, which are ,one of the sights of the place, she was requested by the authorities to Inscribe her name upon a marble slab in the wall, which bears the signatures of many other sovereigns, Dutch and foreign, prominent among them being the autograph of the first Napoleon. Just at the moment when she was about to comply with the request three tiny gnomes sprang out from behind a pillar and exclaimed, in accordance with the timehonored custom, “Who are you that dares add your name to that of William the Silent and of the many illustrious rulers of the Netherlands?” Queen Wilhelmina, who had been prepared for this little piece of pantomime, replied: “I am the daughter of this King William 111. whose signature you see here, and his successor to the throne of Holland,” whereupon, the gnomes—three: small boys dressed up for the oc-casion-bowed low, received some coin, anu retired.